FLINT, MI--Working in his Flint office, neurosurgeon Vivekanand Palavali noticed his patients were having problems he thought were all too common across the United States -- and they had nothing to do with head or spine injuries.

They were having a hard time affording their healthcare.

"How can a very rich and powerful country like America still have 50 million uninsured people, and the quality depends on whether you have money or not?" Palavali said in a recent interview with the Flint Journal.

It's the brain surgeon's second documentary -- his first was a scientific and philosophical exploration of religion, titled "Creator of God" -- and he's also the author of the philosophical book about living life to its fullest, "A Mindful Life."

"Bitter Pill will open with a free screening Oct. 17 at Rave Cinemas in Flint Township at 6:30 p.m.

Attempting to sum up what he sees as America's healthcare problems, Palavali said, "We have a highly uncoordinated, unintegrated, very commercialized and profit-driven (health care system), in some places because of greed, and perpetuated by a corrupt political system."

It's a lot to fit into one sentence, and perhaps just as hard to detail in a full-length documentary. He said "Bitter Pill" was even harder than his first film, even with the experience behind him.

"Making the film about whether God exists or not was less complicated than the film about healthcare," he said with a laugh.

But the fact that healthcare is such a complex issue is why he said he wanted to create the film.

"And then I said, 'Where is the money going and how did we get into the system," he said.

In short, Palavali said the money is going to too many places--or rather, too many people. While he said there are plenty of good doctors out there, he said there are too many "middle men" involved in the system, and that many involved, including plenty of doctors, are more interested in the bottom line than meeting patients' needs.

The upside, he said, is that, "we don't have to reinvent the wheel."

Palavali traveled to France, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Sweden and the Netherlands interviewing doctors and doing research for the film.

With the presidential election looming and healthcare playing a large role in the debate, Palavali said the film's completion came at a good time.

He said there are pros and cons to the different solutions the candidates are proposing. He said President Barrack Obama's Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) makes sense philosophically in that it attempts to improve access to patients. Still, he said more problems need to be addressed that aren't included in Obamacare, such as oversight that would keep doctors from performing unnecessary procedures.

"The government should not be telling the doctors (what to do), but the doctors should be doing it themselves," he said.

"Private insurance companies, even though there’s competition, the costs have never gone down," Palavali said.

Still, he said he's not endorsing any program and said his goal with the film is to inform citizens so they can make informed decisions.

That's the other message of his movie. While half of the responsibility to change the current healthcare system lies with doctors, he said, the other half belongs to the rest of us.

"Patients have responsibility too," he said, and cited national problems like obesity. "It’s increasing. That’s where the patient responsibility comes in."

It's also the average citizen's job to stay informed, he said, and with the healthcare system being so complex, he's hoping his movie will help people make more informed decisions and in so doing, make what he sees are the needed changes.

"The only way that happens is through an informed and engaged citizen," he said.

Aside from the final rounds of editing, Palavali's film was a one-man endeavor. He conducted the interviews, provided the narration, did all the research, worked the camera and did the first round of edits.

You might think that being a brain surgeon keeps him busy enough. He gets that a lot.

"I don’t play golf, that’s the key," he said.
"For me, this is the way: when you have passion, you make time."

Scott
Atkinson is an entertainment reporter for the Flint Journal and can be reached
at (810) 262-0216 or at satkins1@mlive.com. You can also follow Scott on Facebook
or Twitter.